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Sula

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Submitted By willibe
Words 280
Pages 2
Periana L. Wilson Wilson 1
Dr. Dozier
Afam/Engl 218
October 29, 2013
Sula Response In Toni Morrison’s novel Sula, though Sula and Nel come from two totally different types of families, they still find a way to connect to one another and essentially become one. Their connection is based upon something that the other has or gets that may not be present in their own household. Nel’s home is very traditional and stable; her mother raises her to be more of a conservative woman, promoting a clean home, strict rules to keep Nel intact, and being a monogamist. On the contrary though, Sula is raised in a somewhat unstable household where the mother and grandmother are both portrayed as loose due to past events that have happened to the both of them. The reader may find it interesting that Nel’s mother Helene warns Nel not to befriend Sula because of Sula’s family background, yet Nel befriends Sula anyway, and it backfires in the long run. Around 1939 in the novel, Nel is left without a husband and without her ex best friend Sula. All of this chaos is a result of Sula sleeping with Nel’s husband Jude, running off with him, and then leaving him for someone else (pg. 103). She is essentially following in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps and essentially becoming a blues woman. She definitely redefines what it means to be a woman in a completely different way than what is normal in this time period by being unmarried, having no children, and sleeping around with a lot of men, both Black men and White men, which the latter is looked down upon (pg.

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